Study Finds Ratio of Women Heading Companies and Other Organizations in Japan Exceeds 15% for First Time

A study conducted by Tokyo Shōkō Research has found that the number of women heading companies and other organizations in Japan numbers 649,262 in 2024, an increase of 37,038 (or 6.0%) over the previous year. Women account for 15.24% of all company/organization heads nationwide (as compared to 14.96% in 2023), marking the first time to exceed 15%. There has been a threefold increase in the 14 years since 2010, when the total was 212,153.

For the study, Tokyo Shōkō Research searched its management database on roughly 4.25 million organizations to identify women who were presidents of companies or directors of hospitals, co-ops, and other organizations, and then analyzed those result.

The breakdown of results by prefecture shows that the ratio of female company/organization heads was highest in Okinawa, at 20.62%, followed by 17.36% in Yamanashi, 17.21% in Tokyo, 16.99% in Ibaraki, and 16.82% in Osaka. The lowest ratios were 9.69% in Niigata and 9.78% in Yamagata, which were the only two prefectures where the rate was below 10%.

Among female company/organization heads whose age is known, the average is 65.1, which is 1.8 years older than the average of 63.3 for male leaders. The breakdown by age bracket show that women in their seventies are the largest segment, at 25.8%, followed by those in their sixties at 24.6%, fifties at 21.5%, eighties or older at 14.6%, forties at 10.1%, thirties at 2.7%, and those under 30 at 0.3%.

In terms of the revenue for organizations led by women, 69.8% had revenue of ¥100 million or less, while 23.0% had from just over ¥100 million up to ¥500 million, so that 92.9% in total were under ¥500 million. Meanwhile, 0.21% organizations led by women had revenue over ¥10 billion and 0.27% from ¥5 billion up to ¥10 billion; the two categories combined accounted for less than 1%.

The largest number of female leaders were graduates of Nihon University, at 480, followed by Keiō University and Waseda University.

Top Universities that Female Company/Organization Heads Graduated From

Created by Nippon.com based on data from Tokyo Shōkō Research

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)